


Teach Your Children Well

by Sadbhyl



Category: Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-08
Updated: 2011-07-08
Packaged: 2017-10-21 04:21:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sadbhyl/pseuds/Sadbhyl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: No Take Your Child to Work days were harmed in the writing of this story. Any injured copyrights were unintentional</p><p>Notes Written for Hhertzof for the Sarah Jane Adventures ficathon. She wanted “Sarah's team meets Torchwood.” So say we all! Spoilers for all of SJA, through TW 2.10 and a bit for DW 3.11 “Utopia”.</p><p>Originally published March 31, 2008</p>
    </blockquote>





	Teach Your Children Well

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hhertzof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/gifts).



> Disclaimer: No Take Your Child to Work days were harmed in the writing of this story. Any injured copyrights were unintentional
> 
> Notes Written for Hhertzof for the Sarah Jane Adventures ficathon. She wanted “Sarah's team meets Torchwood.” So say we all! Spoilers for all of SJA, through TW 2.10 and a bit for DW 3.11 “Utopia”.
> 
> Originally published March 31, 2008

“This is supposed to be exciting, yes?” Luke glanced back from the train window.

Sarah Jane studied his young, innocent face, then saw how eager and how very young the others looked as well. She was taking a huge risk with this. But they had to see for themselves. “Yes, it’s supposed to be exciting. Enjoy it, Luke. I’m sure you’ll learn a great deal.”

“So why aren’t we going to hang out with your friends in UNIT instead?” Clyde was slouched down in his seat, ignoring the Welsh landscape speeding past the window as he gnawed his way through a bag of crisps.

“Because they are a military organization, and they don’t really do job shadowing in high security organizations.”

“But this lot does?”

“This lot owes a friend of mine a favor. He’s letting me call it in for him.” When the Doctor had stopped by, his face haggard and hollow, he hadn’t explained anything, just insisted that the Captain Jack Harkness she’d been keeping half an eye on since she had discovered the existence of the Torchwood organization was actually a friend of his and would be willing to help her if she ever needed it. Then he’d programmed a number into her mobile, made a call, and introduced her to the man himself. Harkness was charming, certainly, and showed a boyish excitement to find someone else in the world who had traveled with the Doctor. But she had seen the destruction Torchwood spread around and was hesitant to trust him.

Their latest encounter had made her put those concerns aside.

The kids were getting cocky, too sure of themselves at such a young age, too confident in their immortality, too smug in their humanity. They needed to see there was more to the work she did than vinegar and mirrors. That there were real sacrifices, and real consequences.

So she’d called Jack and set up this job shadowing.

“I’ve never seen the sea before,” Luke said, staring out the window again.

“Yeah?” Clyde popped another chip in his mouth. “Well, we’ll get Sarah Jane to take you to Blackpool come summer. Cardiff is rubbish.”

Maria’s dark eyes were far too knowing. “You’re worried about this, aren’t you?”

“No!” she answered too quickly, too sure. “No, I’m sure it will be fine. Just a weekend holiday, right?” She smiled, but only Maria saw it, and she didn’t seem to believe it, either.

Sarah just hoped she wasn’t making a mistake.

****

“You what?”

Owen’s indignation rang off the walls, making Jack wince.

“Look, it’s only for a couple of days,” Jack tried to placate them. “They’re good kids, and they’ve already saved the world a few times themselves.”

“Children.” Ianto’s voice was uninflected, but Jack could read the censure in it. “In the Hub.”

“Well, I think it’s sweet.” Tosh tried to put a good face on it. “They’re the next generation. We should be helping them out.”

“Or scaring them off,” Owen sneered.

“Owen,” Gwen sighed. “Tosh is right. If these kids are taking on aliens already, we owe it to them to do what we can to help.”

“See? That’s what I’m talking about!” Jack grinned and rubbed his hands together enthusiastically.

“You’re taking one of them, I presume?” Ianto asked innocently.

“Me?” Jack hesitated. “Well, no, I was… Their mentor is a friend. Or someone I want to be a friend. I was hoping—”

“Oh, so that’s it, is it?” Gwen pointed a finger at him accusingly. “You were planning to chat up the adult while the rest of us do the dirty work, were you?”

“Come on!” Jack protested. “What do I know about kids?”

“What do any of us know about kids?” Owen reminded him.

“Besides,” he glared at Owen before turning back to Gwen, “would you really want me around a teenager? I might do something…inappropriate.”

“Not if you value this so-called friendship you’re trying to make.” Gwen took over again the way she did whenever Jack was on unsteady ground. “No, you, Tosh and Owen will each take one of the kids and Ianto and I will see to their mentor.”

“But—”

“No buts, Jack. You wanted this, you have to do your part. Besides, it’s only for a few days. What could happen?”

Ianto sighed. “You really shouldn’t have said that.”

****

“Wow.”

Sarah was pleased that it was jaded Clyde who was the first to be impressed by the size and scope of the Torchwood base. All three of them stared around in awe, taking in gadgets and catwalks and old Victorian brickwork. Sarah was only interested in Jack Harkness.

He seemed aware of her scrutiny and watched her as well, trying to make himself look friendly and safe. She knew better and tried to see past the façade to the man beneath. But he was too good at hiding himself, a fact that didn’t make her any more comfortable. Oh well, there were other ways to get to know him. Like through his co-workers and what they thought of him.

The dark haired woman was the first to break the standoff. “Welcome to Torchwood, how do you do? I’m Gwen Cooper.”

“Sarah Jane Smith.” She took the woman’s hand. Strong grip but not overpowering. Genuinely friendly. “This is Clyde Langer, Maria Jackson and my son, Luke Smith.”

“Welcome, everyone. Hope you like the place.”

“It’s wonderful!” Maria insisted, still taking everything in.

“I see three different periods of construction here,” Luke said. “How did they extend the sculpture all the way through without discovering you?”

“Who cares?” Clyde interrupted before anyone could respond. “Look at this place! It’s like the Batcave!”

Gwen and Sarah shared a sympathetic look before Gwen went on with the introductions. “You met Ianto Jones on your way in.” He inclined his head politely when Gwen gestured to him. “Ianto is our PA and will see to anything you need while you’re here. Toshiko Sato is our technology expert,” the young Asian woman ducked her head a bit at the compliment, “Owen Harper, our medical specialist, and I believe you already know Jack.”

“Actually,” Sarah corrected politely, “we’ve never met. In person.”

“It’s a pleasure to fix that.” Taking his hands out of his pockets, he offered one to her with a Hollywood smile. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, Sarah Jane Smith.”

“Then you haven’t been talking to the right people.”

He laughed, but she had obviously thrown him off. “Now, I thought it would be best if the children worked with each of you rather than being assigned to one adult. Give them a chance to see the whole operation.”

“Oh.” Gwen looked startled. Also good. She didn’t want this lot taking her for granted. “Of course, that sounds like a good plan.”

“Excellent. Now perhaps Mr. Jones would be willing to show us around?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Of course. Follow me, won’t you?”

She could feel the others gathering behind them, voices muttering low and unhappy.

She didn’t care.

****

“Who does she think she is?” Owen asked fiercely under his breath as Ianto led the little group up the stairs.

“She’s responsible for them,” Gwen insisted. “She doesn’t know us, so she’s distrustful. It makes sense.”

“Still,” even Tosh seemed a little hesitant, “she doesn’t have to be quite so sarky.”

“Setting ground rules,” Jack insisted, watching the petite woman taking everything in as they circled the catwalk above. “First rule of negotiation.”

“What on earth are we negotiating?”

“I’m not certain.” Jack slid his hands into his pockets. “But I’m going to find out.”

****

“So, what do you do all day?”

The girl didn’t seem shy or flustered around Jack. That was…well, unusual and disappointing to be honest. Instead she was rifling through the contents of the top of his desk, picking everything up, turning it over, studying it and then putting it back where it belonged. Like she was more interested in them than in him.

“Well,” he said, not sure what to do that would recapture her attention, “when we aren’t out on an investigation, I manage the office and take care of the paperwork.”

“Sounds pretty dull.”

“Maybe, but it’s important. We won’t be here forever, and the people who come after us, maybe people like you and your friends, need to know what we’ve learned in case they need to do something similar.”

Except he would be there forever, wouldn’t he? Forever filling out endless stacks of forms and reports while the people around him came and went, died or left. Jack, however, would always be here, an eternal man trapped by bureaucracy.

The girl leaned closer, breaking his reverie. “Tell me about Ianto,” she asked in a whispered hush, her eyes sparkling.

Jack groaned.

****

“It’s an organic/synthetic hybrid computer,” Tosh explained to Luke, who was hunched over her keyboard studying the interface. “It’s adapted from an Antorexian ship that crashed in the Irish Sea ten years ago. There’s nothing like it anywhere on Earth.”

“We have one,” Luke said innocently, accessing the restricted directory with the system’s schematics.

“What?”

“We have one. Mr. Smith. It’s in my mother’s attic.”

“But that’s not possible.”

“It is.” He was more interested in the data he was reviewing than in what he was saying. “She grew him from a crystal they found in Krakatoa.” He accessed the root directory and began editing a command string. “If you redirect the command structure through the organic network, you can get a boost on efficiency of seven percent or more.”

Tosh felt out of her depth.

****

“And this is where we bring the bug eyed, slimy, tentacled aliens to be dissected.” Owen really hated this. It was his favorite part about joining Torchwood, the fact that he didn’t have to kowtow to donors and investors the way he had at the hospital. But here he was, stuck doing the dog and pony show for a fifteen year old kid who obviously didn’t give a shit.

Clyde hopped up on the table, cradling his pop as he leaned forward eagerly. “Bet you have a flash car, am I right?”

Turning away so the kid didn’t see him roll his eyes, Owen pretended to be checking a monitor that he hoped Clyde didn’t notice was turned off. “It’s all right.”

“I bet the ladies love it, though. The flashy car, the secret agent gig; it’s the kind of thing they go crazy for, yeah?”

They used to. Owen remembered when all those things used to matter. Now he would trade it all just for a taste of the soda the kid guzzled down so casually.

****

“Well, this was one of the more miserable days I’ve spent on this job,” Owen complained as they all huddled around a table in the pub that night. “And I think it’s safe to say I speak from experience.”

“They’re just kids,” Ianto insisted. “And yet—”

“Yeah.” Tosh stared down into her beer.

“Oh, come on,” Gwen protested. “They seem like good kids.”

“That’s just it.” Owen started pitching the nuts he couldn’t eat into the pint he couldn’t drink. “They are good kids. They’re sharp and fearless and idealistic.”

“And smart,” Tosh added. “Luke is just frightening, but the other two are just as good in their own way.”

“They have so much faith in the world,” Ianto’s own voice was tinged with regret. “They believe in themselves and in Miss Smith. Like everything’s always going to turn out right.”

“Only we know better.”

Even Gwen couldn’t counter Owen’s bitter statement.

****

“Well, they’re a bit rubbish.”

The kids were all curled up on Sarah Jane’s bed, the remains of room service shoved to the side.

“I did’t think they were rubbish,” Luke defended against Clyde’s comment. “They seemed very…nice.”

“They’re being nice to us because of Sarah Jane.” Maria grabbed a cold chip off the tray and nibbled on it. “You could tell none of them really wanted us around.”

“With all the tech and flash they’ve got,” Clyde went on, “and what do they do all day? Monitor Rift activity.” The last he said in a sententious voice, punctuated by air quotes.

“And go on and on about how serious their work is.” Maria mimicked Clyde’s tone, then broke out giggling, Clyde joining her.

“Maybe they’ve just seen too much.”

Luke’s observation quieted them both.

Never looking up from her laptop, Sarah smiled.

****

“It’s just a field assessment,” Gwen insisted. “Nothing too interesting.”

“Then there shouldn’t be any problem taking the children with you.”

“We won’t all fit in the SUV. I’m sorry, but—”

“Ianto can stay here,” Jack surprised everyone by chiming in. “And it will give Sarah Jane and I a chance to talk in private.”

“Jack—” But he was already heading to his office, dismissing them.

“Do as you’re told,” Sarah instructed the kids. “This is no place to be fooling around. If you notice something, point it out to Gwen. Don’t touch anything yourselves.”

Clyde and Maria were mortified, but Luke just nodded and followed docilely along after.

Once they were gone, Sarah followed Jack. “You wanted to see me, Captain?”

“You know, you can drop the Captain. We are comrades in arms of a sort.”

“Of a sort, perhaps.” Sarah sat primly in the chair across from his desk. “But I believe people’s actions say more than their history does. And your actions have been less than impressive.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m sure you’ve been trying, Jack. And the Doctor wouldn’t have introduced us if he didn’t think there was something decent in you. But really, how many times have you lot saved the world in the last year?”

“At least twice that I can think of.”

“And how many of those times had you put it in jeopardy yourself?”

Jack was quiet.

“I’m sorry, Captain, but you need to prove yourself.”

“I guess the kids aren’t the only ones job shadowing, then.”

Sarah smiled wryly. “I guess not.”

He leaned forward, folding his hands. “Then show me how it’s done.”

****

“It looks like a fairly standard impact crater,” Tosh studied the readings on her handheld. “Older, maybe six or seven years.”

“Who found it?” Opposite Gwen, Maria crouched next to the oddly shaped rock, copying her examination.

“Park ranger, out looking for kids partying in the woods.” Gwen stood up and circled it, Maria mirroring her. “He tripped over this instead. Said it squished and made a gurgling sound when he stepped on it. He phoned the police and they called us.”

“Do you always work with the police?” Clyde asked from a safe distance.

“Not always. I have friends there still, so when something’s off, they call me.”

Maria reached out a hand towards the stone, but Owen caught her. “Ah ah, sunshine. Remember what Mother said.”

“I wasn’t going to touch it,” Maria said defensively. “But it’s warm, see? If it fell through the atmosphere years ago, shouldn’t it be cold by now?”

“It should.” Tosh recalibrated a setting and read it again. “But she’s right. It’s definitely warm. Thirty-two degrees and rising.”

Owen caught Maria’s arm. “Back away—”

But it was too late.

The rock shifted and groaned, then burst out of the ground fully erect, three legs planted firmly in the ground and five tentacles flailing around, reaching for anything nearby. It knocked Gwen aside as though she were nothing, staggering sideways before searching in the general direction of Owen and Maria.

Clyde helped Gwen scramble out of range. “We have to get them out of there. If that thing gets to Owen—”

Clyde already had his cell phone out.

****

Sarah’s phone rang at the same time Jack’s headset signaled for attention. “Go ahead,” he pushed to talk even as Sarah answered her phone.

“Jack!” Tosh sounded flustered, and in the background Jack could hear shouts and branches breaking. “We’ve got trouble. The asteroid was alive, and it’s got Owen and the girl pinned down.”

“Hang on, we’re on our way.” He was already up and moving, but Sarah Jane was two steps ahead of him. “Ianto, we need the car!”

Ianto was already handing him the keys. Jack tossed them back and dropped under the rail to the armory. “You drive. You’re better on the curves.”

“No weapons!”

He turned to stare at Sarah Jane in disbelief. “You have got to be kidding. You don’t even know what’s out there!”

“I know my kids are out there, and you aren’t going swanning in there, guns blazing. Not this time.”

Ianto’s expression never altered, but Jack knew him well enough to see he was enjoying this little battle of wills. “Fine. But if anything happens to any of my people—”

“I shouldn’t worry too much, sir,” Ianto said blandly. “I understand predators prefer to take out the young.”

“And the vulnerable,” Jack reminded him acidly.

For the first time, Ianto faltered. “Point taken, sir.”

“Well, don’t just stand there.” Sarah was already halfway up the stairs to the lift. “Let’s go.”

****

“Shit.”

Maria cringed. “Quiet!” she whispered fiercely at Owen. “It’s going to find us.”

“I think it already knows where we are, sunshine. That’s why it has us backed up against a rock.”

“What’s it doing?”

“Playing with us. Now help me get this damn stick out of my leg.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t even notice. Does it hurt?” She cursed herself even as she reached for the medical kit Owen had dropped in the attack. “Stupid question. Of course it hurts.”

“Actually, it doesn’t. And you won’t need that. Just hold my leg down.”

Puzzled, Maria did as he asked, pressing down hard on either side of the splintered length of wood impaled in his thigh. “One,” he counted, “two, three!”

She pushed and he pulled and suddenly the length came free, tearing more fabric on the way out. Maria grabbed for the first aid kit, then stopped. “Wait a minute. You’re not bleeding. Why aren’t you bleeding?”

“Because I’m already dead, love. Just hope we don’t end up saying the same about you.”

****

“He’s what?” Clyde must have heard Gwen wrong.

“Owen is dead, and if he takes any damage, he can’t heal himself. So we have to get the attention of that thing off of him and your friend before either one of them gets hurt.”

“How is he walking around if he’s dead?”

“Clyde!” Gwen snapped. “Worry about that later. Right now we have more important things to worry about.”

“More important than being dead?”

“Ending up dead is more important right now. Now, you look pretty fast, yeah?”

He shrugged. “Not bad.”

“That’ll have to be good enough. Tosh, what have you got?”

“One second, Gwen. I think we’ve got a plan.”

****

“You’re sure about this?”

Tosh and Luke were hunched down behind the nose of the SUV, brainstorming like mad. It was an inopportune pleasure to work with someone who could invent on the fly the way Tosh could. Luke might possibly even be better.

“I haven’t practiced on a real car engine before,” Luke said without embarrassment or false modesty, “but it’s a fairly rudimentary wiring schematic. I should be able to figure it out.”

“All right then. If you can rewire the horn into my scanner, I can set the wavelength emitter to vary the frequency—”

“Until we find the one that weakens the creature’s crystalline structure enough to disable it.”

“Or kill it.”

“Mum says we don’t need to kill. That that’s just for people who aren’t clever enough to find another way.”

“Sounds like what my mother always said about cursing.”

Luke smiled. “Mum says that, too.”

“Well, let’s hope your mum is right. Ready?”

****

They didn’t have to search the woods very hard to find Jack’s team and Sarah’s kids. The wail of the SUV’s horn led them on before they’d gone ten steps down the path.

The branches grabbed at Jack’s coat as he raced to keep up with the tiny woman ahead of him. Someone her age shouldn’t be so damn fast, but whether it was desperation or natural speed, she was quickly leaving him in the dust.

In frustration, he shed the coat and raced on after her.

They broke into the clearing just in time to see an enormous silicate creature whirling about, distracted by Gwen and Clyde charging and it and then speeding out of its reach as Maria helped Owen limp out of range. Luke sat behind the wheel of the SUV, leaning on the horn while Tosh looked from the creature to her scanner and back, constantly adjusting controls. The creature’s tentacles suddenly went rigid, and it began to wail in tune with the horn.

“Stop!” Sarah Jane’s shout couldn’t be heard over the resonant blare of the car horn. Instead, she jumped in front of the car, waving her arms at the boy behind the wheel.

The woods went deadly silent as he released the horn.

Jack reacted instinctively.

“Jack Harkness, I said no weapons.”

Jack didn’t lower his service revolver, now trained on the suddenly limp alien. “Sorry, Sarah Jane. My territory, my call.”

She stepped in front of him. “Then you’ll have to shoot me first.”

He wanted to argue with her, wanted to shove her out of the way and do what instinct was screaming at him to do. But he remembered the Doctor, shouting at him in exactly the same way five billion years in the future, his voice full of anger and disappointment. Just like Sarah’s. “Dammit.” He lowered the gun.

“Thank you.” And she turned back to the creature.

“Sarah Jane!” the children all shouted as she started walking towards it, but she shushed them with a hand gesture, moving forward step by step.

She was humming.

Almost imperceptibly the creature’s tentacles began to drift in time to Sarah’s voice as she grew closer. When she was close enough, she drifted her fingers along one long appendage, all the while humming the same alien melody.

The creature trembled before rolling up into a ball again, rock-like and inert.

The kids were all over her in an instant, but she hushed them, backing away. “You had the right idea,” she explained, focusing on Luke. “It’s a Talandarian. Their whole existence is sound and music. Manipulating the wavelengths was smart, but you needed to go softer rather than louder. Like lulling a baby to sleep. See, Captain?” Those hazel eyes turned on him, and he felt instantly chastised. “No need for weapons. You just needed to use your head.”

****

The children were much more subdued on the train ride home.

“Ianto promised to let me drive that sports car when I get my license,” Clyde said, obviously hesitant to break the quiet of the ride.

“And Toshiko gave me an algorithm to work on for doing alien language translation that’s been giving her trouble.”

“That sounds lovely, for both of you.”

“Is it always like that?” Maria asked just as quietly.

“Like what?”

“For them. Is it always about death and dying and killing? Is that what this becomes when you grow up?”

Sarah put her arm around Maria. “No, not always. Not for everyone. And not for them all the time, I suspect. They just need a reminder every once in a while.”

“So we’ll be going back to visit?”

Luke’s innocent enthusiasm gave Sarah a bit of hope. “Of course. The next time we can arrange it.”

****

They all lingered around the lounge longer than was necessary after the alien had been properly put in cryogenic stasis and all the paperwork completed.

“It’s too quiet.” Ianto was the first to voice what they were all thinking.

Jack grinned. “I thought you didn’t like them messing the place up?”

“They were just being kids.”

“Well,” Owen stretched out, attempting to put his feet on the coffee table before the new bandage on his leg stopped him, “I’m just as glad to have them out from underfoot. It’ll give us a chance to get back to some proper work.”

Gwen stared off into the distance. “That’s our future. They’re the ones who will do this when we’re gone.”

“God help them all.”

There was a mutter of agreement to Tosh’s quiet prayer.

“Go home, people,” Jack insisted finally. “You’ve done enough for today. Good work, everyone.”

“They did as much as we did,” Gwen reminded him.

Back at his desk, Jack found Ianto had already circulated the group photo he had taken before they had left. Of all the bright, young, innocent faces, he found himself studying Sarah Jane’s the most. Wise beyond even her years, wiser than Jack ever could be. But she was still human, still mortal. Someday she would be gone, and they would be on their own.

If her children ended up coming to him when she was gone, he had better be ready.


End file.
